Same Dog New Tricks
Stepping into the Never Zone felt like a breath of fresh air for Marco, albeit air filled with the intent to break him body and soul, he relished the feeling of his true form filled with all his old strength. Standing at 6'5 Marco was any prepubescent teens wet dream, although he definitely looked like his younger self there was no doubt in anyone's mind that this was a man. With a chiseled jawline that could cut diamonds Marco looked over himself careful to inspect every part, ever the safe kid he still subconsciously was, doing so gave him a general idea of what he looked like. Since the last time he had looked at himself like this was when he was still sneaking off to go on adventures with Hekapoo, it always left him messed up every time since his usual functions took a while to sync up with his older body.
Concluding that his inspection yielded nothing significantly wrong he set about surveying his surroundings, immediately berating himself for no doing so earlier. 'this isn't Mewni anymore Marco, we're back in the Never Zone now, gotta be more alert', he knew better than anyone just how unforgiving this place could be. For as much as he loved and admired its beauty, Marco had to yield that the place was a literal deathtrap that would kill any and everyone it encountered that didn't meet the world's criteria of strong.
To any sane person living in this place willingly was something a crazy person would do, well he wasn't exactly sane now was he considering how he followed Star around like a lost puppy for over a year.
This thought brought him back to what had happened prior and caused him to drop his good mood, after all she was the reason, he had come to the decision to return to this place.
Unfortunately for one Marco Diaz, as his previous thoughts had warned him, the continuous distraction to the task at hand had led to him being startled as a guttural roar sounded behind him. Tensing immediately, he jumped into action, throwing his hands into the air and his traditional stance and planting his feet… or at least he tried to. The beast that had made the roar had sent him flying, landing roughly fifty feet from his original spot a dazed Marco looked up and paled. "Dios mio, it had to be one of them" he muttered.
There, towering above him like an imposing demon ready to drag him to hell was a lion, well if one could call it that. It loomed over Marco dripping saliva from its parted maw as it let loose a deep growl in its throat that glowed with flame; a golden mane that reminded him of Star's hair adorned its neck, and beady golden eyes were narrowed at him shining in the flickering light. That however is where all the similarities to a lion stopped, the further one looked down its large body the more bizarre things became. Starting from the shoulders the coat of lion fur changed into something thicker and turned into a goat's coat, upon which a large goat head sat atop. Its large horns spiraled and curled into the air as it turned its head to stare at him letting out a loud, BLEET! As it did.
From then on things only got worse as that too started to recede starting at the beginning of the hind quarters fur changed to scales, which lead down to thick strong muscled dragon legs. Each toe equipped with large talons that could tear him apart in an instant. Then to top it all off the tail was not a tail at all, no, it was in fact a brown snake with a round head, yellow underbelly, and v shape marks on its top side. Marco could hear it hissing and whipping around looking for its next victim to strike, he couldn't believe his luck as he started to scramble to his feet desperate to put some more difference between himself and the beast, he found himself against.
No this was no lion at all. This was a Chimera, and it looked pissed. Marco took a quick look around as he slowly backed away searching for his weapon and pack so he could defend himself. Fortunately, he spotted it rather close, unfortunately it was behind the Chimera he was currently backing away from. 'Quick Marco think of something, anything!' he darted his eyes back and forth between the beast and his pack dread filling him as he continued to back up, putting even more distance between what his only hope could be. 'come on Marco! Think of something! What would Star do!' that singular thought pissed Marco off stopping him in his tracks, even facing life or death he was still thinking of her and what she might do. It was time for him to be his own man, not some teen who was way over his head and followed around a princess at a whim. It was time he put his future into his own hands, and so Marco took a deep breath and started running towards the Chimera yelling a war cry as he did so. The Chimera answered his call with a roar before thundering towards him with astonishing speed, each paw hitting the ground tearing it and creating a sound like a tree hitting the ground. As the two neared Marco tensed and prepared as the Chimera leapt into the air; this was what Marco was waiting for as he dropped and used his momentum to carry himself forward, baseball sliding underneath the beast as the top of his head grazed its underbelly, narrowly avoiding its dragon back end in the process. Hearing a slicing sound in the air Marco's instincts kicked in and he whipped his head to the side barely dodging the snake strike from its tail as he did so.
Quickly getting up and running the last few feet to his bag, Marco dove as his peripheral vison showed him the thing was not only powerful but agile as it quickly turned and bounded towards him again. Just as he reached into his bag and grabbed his short sword Marco heard the telltale sign of it leaping again. This time however there was no escape for Marco as quickly turning, unsheathing the blade in the process, showed it falling onto him from above him.
Thinking fast Marco thrust upwards hoping to catch it falling onto his sword and letting gravity take care of the rest. Sadly, it seemed the beast was intelligent as it twisted its body at the last second, only suffering a shallow cut on its broad chest. The beast rolled and scrambled upright as Marco calmed his breathing and took a stance with his sword, now totally mentally and physically prepared to put up a fight.
With the Chimera now up and steady the two circled each other slowly, neither showing the other any sort of extra movement to give one and opening. Soon though it seemed that the Chimera had enough of waiting and charged once again towards Marco hoping to end it quickly and without any more injuries. Marco for his part waited, standing still with both hands gripping his sword and his left foot forward Marco's focus was razor sharp. And just as the beast tried to take a chunk out of him with a swipe from its deadly paws, Marco twisted away at the last second sending his sword down in a downward diagonal arc as leaving a large gash on its left eye. The Chimera immediately let loose a roar that would have intimidated and cowed anyone else as it thrashed around, snake tail whipping around violently as its paws kneaded the earth. Marco let out the breath he had been holding and loosened his stance preparing his next clash as the Chimera slowed its thrashing and quieted its roars. Staring at Marco with its one eye filled with an ocean of hate Marco thought he would drown it, then the beast tensed. He would never admit to anyone after this, but Marco seriously wanted to piss his pants at the look it gave him for a few seconds before his resolved strengthened itself and he tightened his grip on his sword.
The Chimera eyed him for what seemed like hours then miraculously turned around and started to walk off, a begrudging respect having formed between the two as one parted from the other. He stood there for a long-time tense and waiting for any danger to pop out of nowhere, before finally after god knows how long, he relaxed and sank to the ground exhausted. Doing so caused him to wince however as he looked down and saw it had got a hit on him without him noticing, 'probably due to all my adrenaline right now' there was now a long gash bleeding down the right side of his chest to his waist and boy did it hurt.
Marco sighed, "I definitely got off easy this time but fuuuuck does this hurt" ripping his shirt into a makeshift bandage he did the best he could in wrapping his wound before calling it day. 'This is the best its gonna get right now but it'll probably scar' at this Marco sighed once again slightly peeved it had ruined his perfect abs, 'though some girls might dig the scarred and rugged look with my muscles so this might work'.
Gathering his supplies Marco looked around again at the place he had landed in. 'I seem to have portaled to the burning isles.' A place which was a small archipelago near the main land mass of the Never Zone and housed some of the most dangerous and mythical monsters ever heard of home to seven different biomes each with their own head honcho 'boss' monster one could say it truly sucked to be there. 'Which makes sense why I ran into one of those things' Marco truly did have the worst luck it seemed. "Nothing to do about just gotta keep on keepin' on. I did sign up for this after all", and with his head held high Marco Diaz set about travelling through the Never Zone to start his search. A search to find himself and see just who and what Marco Diaz was.
If there was one thing Marco knew however was that it wouldn't be easy, it would push him to his limits and beyond and promised to take years of his time. Marco would find himself faced with decisions he would regret, choices he would fear, and battles he would cry over. At the thought of this he grinned, maybe it was adventuring with Star and all the consequences that followed. Perhaps he truly was a crazy person, who could say? One thing was clear through all of that to Marco, whether he changed or not the new him would be a him he discovered without Star, without his parents, without any quests or time sensitive missions to fuel his need. This Marco would be a Marco that would be pressured by the world to crush him into nothing. It would get nothing but diamonds, and to that Marco was excited.
